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Two Beats in a Bar: 2/4 & Cut Time
Some music moves in twos, ONE-two, ONE-two, like feet in a march: its time signature puts two beats in every bar. In 2/4 a quarter note gets the beat; in cut time a half note does. (Handout 44 explains the two numbers.)
Plain prints every note in black, without the color coding.
Listen
Play each example here, or download it as an MP3 (audio) or a MIDI file.
1 · 2/4
- 2/4 counted: quarters, eighths, sixteenths and a half note, a click on every beat0:13
- Musette in D, bars 1–4, a click on every quarter-note beat0:10
2 · Cut time
- The tune in 4/4: four quarter-note clicks in every bar0:09
- The same tune in cut time, same speed: two half-note clicks in every bar0:09
- Clementi, Sonatina Op. 36 No. 1, bars 1–4, a click on every half-note beat0:13
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Free to use in your own lessons and practice. Made by the teachers at Tissimo.